Almost Famous/Almost Broke: How does a jazz musician make it in NYC now?

[Hemant]

Great article from Village Voice.

(broken link removed)

 

[JazzDrumGuy]

Nice read......

 

[hazelshould]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[ron pangborn]

Great stuff. Thank you for sharing...

 

[Vistalite Black]

Amazing article.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[10 Lug]

Very interesting. Thank you.

 

[jptrickster]

Average 1 bedroom in a halfway decent hood NYC going to run you about 2500- 3 k a month.
Thats roughly 30 gigs @ 100 or 15 @ 200.
To live comfortably you probably need 8-10 grand a month. 7 nights a week at 200 gets you 5600 and hopefully you have 10 students a week at 100 a pop. That could get you over that 10 grand a month threshold. You can play in the street for tips too. The secret here is to find yourself a sugar daddy.

 

[rondrums51]

It's impossible to live in Manhattan and make a living playing jazz. The guys who are working in town live in New Jersey or one of the boroughs, and if they don't have a day gig teaching or something, they're scuffling bad.

My New York jazz drummer friends all tell me the same thing: You play conventions and wedding gigs, which pay very well. That's your bread and butter. You play jazz clubs for love, not money.

The exception might be guys who play steady Broadway shows, and even then, they're not getting rich.

 

[bongomania]

I was in a jazz trio in SF some years back, and the marimba player leader moved to NYC because he felt that was the only way he was going to make it "for real" as a serious jazz artist wanting to get recognition. He spent the next few years working as a bartender, living in a tiny apartment, scrambling to get any gigs at all. Last I saw he was back in the Bay Area looking for work as a landscaper. Not due to any lack of talent, serious effort, and dedication! It's just that hard to make a living playing jazz.

 

[wayne]

You have to believe in luck, just like buying lottery tickets. Do you think this is the good ol days when people are "discovered"?...Its who do you know?..Face it, you have a better chane going on American Idol, or Americas got talent...At least there you get "discovered"....if you are good enough.

 

[BennyK]

I have a lifelong friend who made a living in New York on Broadway, in the studios and clubs - violinist, concert master , but even he told me he'd seen things get worse from the late eighties onward . He ended up starting a catering service for the rich and famous with entertainment as part of the deal . This is a man who toured with Johnny Mathis and Sinatra .

Italy, France, Hong Kong . But you have to be able to play . Really well .

 

[rondrums51]

I have a lifelong friend who made a living in New York on Broadway, in the studios and clubs - violinist, concert master , but even he told me he'd seen things get worse from the late eighties onward . He ended up starting a catering service for the rich and famous with entertainment as part of the deal . This is a man who toured with Johnny Mathis and Sinatra .

Italy, France, Hong Kong . But you have to be able to play . Really well .

That's a sad commentary on The Dumbing Down of America, Benny.

 

[What It Is]

And yet music schools keep churning out musicians by the thousands each year. I guess it's still "buyer beware" economics, but when do universities and music academies take a serious look at the music landscape and ensure that their students have a firm understanding of what they're getting into? Too much supply in a changing world? Sad state of affairs and I'm not sure the "old days" are going to come back where one can make a living playing a variety of music. It's always been hard, but since the 80's, this has been the omen.

 

[veafer]

Great read. Someone with that kind of talent and experience deserves to be in the top 1%. At her level and getting paid under a $100.00 a gig is just a crying shame.

 

[rondrums51]

And yet music schools keep churning out musicians by the thousands each year. I guess it's still "buyer beware" economics, but when do universities and music academies take a serious look at the music landscape and ensure that their students have a firm understanding of what they're getting into? Too much supply in a changing world? Sad state of affairs and I'm not sure the "old days" are going to come back where one can make a living playing a variety of music. It's always been hard, but since the 80's, this has been the omen.

Good point. Less than 1 percent are actually going to make a living in the music business. A few will end up in symphony gigs. A few will be in semi-successful rock bands. A micro-percentage will actually make a living playing jazz.

But at least they will have the pleasure of learning and playing music.

When I was 21 years old, I thought I was rich. I was making $300 a week working in clubs 6 nights a week. There were scores of clubs using live bands full time. It was impossible to be out of work if you could play. My rent was $85 a month and my electric bill was $30. My phone bill was $20, and a trip to the grocery store was $40. This was 1973 in Orlando, FL. In the 80's, I was playing shows in theaters, TV and radio commercials, big band gigs, conventions, jazz gigs, Disney gigs. etc. I did 4 years in a hotel with a showroom, 2 shows a night, 6 nights a week. And I still belonged to the musicians union.

It all came to an end in 1989. I was working 6 nights a week at the Helmsley Hotel downtown. We started hearing rumors about singles and duos who were trying to get our gig. Drum machines were becoming popular, and recorded tracks were starting up.

I figured I'd better get somewhere where there were lots of rich old people who still wanted live music. That would be south Florida in the 90's. The gigs were mostly country clubs. Not the most creative work, but there was a ton of it. I worked 4-5 nights a week. Did some jazz clubs also, paid $100. I dropped out of the union because it had no longer had any influence at all.

The duos and singles with tracks infected the country clubs as the old rich died off and new young rich started coming in, and the country club gigs started drying up. I said screw it and started teaching college.

Today, I still play jazz gigs selectively. They pay $100-125 on the average. The same damn money I was making 30 years ago. It's gas and grocery money.

I am writing this long post to advise young players what they're in for in 2016. Get a day gig and play some gigs to make extra bucks.

 

[hawker]

Thanks for the post, great and....sad article. Wanna make it as a Jazz player in the Big Apple, make sure you can play something other than jazz or have a fantastic day job.

And this line...ouch! "The crowd at Dizzy's is older, polite, and sedate bordering on comatose".

By the way, I watch almost all of the Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) concerts for free on-line. No charge and there are generally at least two concerts a week and some great, great jazz. Most of it more straight ahead or the Bop variety. Suits me.

 

[hawker]

You have to believe in luck, just like buying lottery tickets. Do you think this is the good ol days when people are "discovered"?...Its who do you know?..Face it, you have a better chane going on American Idol, or Americas got talent...At least there you get "discovered"....if you are good enough.

But unfortunately in Jazz.. there isn't anything to get discovered TO. Jazz is the least listened to and purchased music in America. There is no disputing that. Even Opera sells more CDs.

So, other than a very few artists...there isn't really a jazz scene in which you can be successful; own a house, have some kids, drive a decent car, etc. You can count on one hand the number of Jazz artists that do large live concerts and who make any real money selling CDs. Do it if you love it, but have some other way to make a living....and I hate saying that.

 

["poppies"]

As a Berklee grad, I know quite a few full time jazz pros, but also "musicians" with day gigs who play at night or on the weekends. Outside of one guy whose wealthy parents pretty much covered his early years, the latter group seems to have a waaaaaaay higher quality of life than the former. Note that this differential is completely unconnected to any difference in talent levels.

It's one thing to live cheap and loose in your 20s so you can scrape by on meager earnings, but when you're in your 40s and beyond, insurance and decent wages are a big deal. Anecdotally, I don't know anyone who is regularly touring who has or plans to have kids, too. They're expensive, time consuming and wonderful; you really need to do the mental calculus to decide how to align your career with what you value.

I'm far more musically satisfied these days performing after my "straight job" hours than I ever was doing music full time.

 

[drummaman1]

By the way, I watch almost all of the Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) concerts for free on-line. No charge and there are generally at least two concerts a week and some great, great jazz. Most of it more straight ahead or the Bop variety. Suits me.

But, this is one of the problems contributing to this mess. On the other hand, we balk when asked to pay for the access to great music online. It's as if there's some kind of "money fairy" that makes all the music we access online free. Where's the incentive to even have live music when why bother, I just have my Spotify playlist?

These are the mentalities, the justifications, the reasoning us musicians have to weather. I certainly don't have an answer as to how "make it better" if that's even possible. I guess we take it a day at time. Either way, the rent in NYC is Too. Damn. High. Anyway you slice it.

 

[fishaa]

"I'm far more musically satisfied these days performing after my "straight job" hours than I ever was doing music full time."

+1...and for what it's worth, I live and work in NYC with wife and 2 kids. And trust me, I'm not making bank as a HS music teacher.